Final Fantasy VII Interludes
by Empress-Eerian-Sadow
Summary: just one of the compilations of my final fantasy interludes series. a series of thoughts and perspectives from the characters of the games.
1. Reno of the Turks

Reno's Interlude  
Origonally Published 5.15.2005

_A/N: surprisingly, there were no origonal author's notes for this one, but it was the second interlude i ever wrote. i guess i just didn't have much to say about the series yet._

* * *

It was raining the day they first sent us all after the Ancient. That brown acid rain that Midgar gets—and that no one should ever be out in. I was in my office smoking a cigarette when Tseng brought the orders in. She was just a girl, but we were supposed to use force if necessary to bring her in.

Seemed mad scientist Hojo wanted her for something. Gave me the creeps thinking about that. We'd all heard the story of what he'd done to the traitor Valentine years ago. No one should have to deal with what he could dish out—especially a pretty girl like that.

But an order was an order. I didn't have to like it—just follow it.

Let me be straight here—I didn't really care what happened to the girl. At least, not as long as Hojo didn't get her. I just didn't like the guy's methods—or the fact that he had no problems experimenting on living human beings.

Sometimes, I had my suspicions about how General Sephiroth got so damn strong too.

Anyway. So we tracked the Ancient—Joda and me—to this little café in Sector 5. In the pouring rain, getting our gear and our uniforms ruined. I had to get a new shock stick after that one, and Shinra, Inc. had to get a new Turk. Not the girl's fault there though, Joda just picked the wrong guy to piss off. I had a hell of a time explaining his broken neck to Tseng, but no one had really liked Joda anyway.

To tell the truth, when Joda got in that fight, I let the Ancient get away on purpose. Course, I'm taking that secret to my grave. Maybe I did care after all—at least a little. She was a sweet kid after all—a kid then anyway.

Its funny. Joda's replacement got killed trying to nab the Ancient too. Don't even remember that guy's name. Seems the girl had friends in Wall Market, too. How a girl like that would get mixed up with people in a slum like that is beyond me. But this tough guy they had working with me decided to mix it up with Beautiful Bro's boys—and man did he pay for it.

After that, Heidegger stopped having Tseng send two Turks in at a time for her. The regular troops were cheaper and more expendable.

It was Tseng who finally got her, you know. While I was being taken to the hospital after Avalanche beat the holy hell out of me. I was a little disappointed that it wasn't me who nabbed her, after all the shit I'd been through; but I couldn't deny Tseng his moment of sunshine.

Whatever that girl did for him, it did wonders. He never had been the same since his wife died. Too bad Sephiroth killed her before I ever got to really see her again. Maybe she could have helped me send away my own demons.


	2. Aeris Gainsborough

Aeris' Interlude  
Origonally published 5.27.2005

* * *

_ORIGONAL AUTHOR'S NOTE: _

_i'm sorry, i know i should be working on Stories, or Free as a Bird, or Sunrise Sherbet. but as i was doing just that, olivia newton john's song please mister please began playing on my windows media player and this idea crept into my mind. it mutated quite a bit from the origonal concept into what you're about to read, but hey, what can ya do?_

_sorry for the delay on my other stuff. i'll go get back to work on those now. and i'll let Aeris read her own disclaimer. (See, i really don't hate Aeris after all!)_

_Disclaimer (As read by Aeris): ahem. No one is this fic, or the setting or events mentioned therein are the property of Empress-Eerian-Sadow. She cannot even take credit for any origonal characters today, as none appear in this piece. She's not making any money off this fiction and is just having some fun here._

* * *

I still remember the day Zack left. Not the date—time doesn't mean much here in the slums—just the day. It was overcast above the plate, which meant all the street lights were on underneath it instead of half of them. And even then it was still dark. And cold—we were both wrapped up in coats more suited to visiting the city of Icicle Inn than living in Midgar. He'd invited me over to his place for lunch. My mother was off visiting a friend in sector three.

He greeted me at the door with a hug and kiss, the way he always did. I responded nervously like I always did—I never felt comfortable at his apartment above the plate. We sat down for lunch—take out from some restaurant that he knew and ate in tense silence. I could tell he wanted to tell me something, but I didn't know what.

Finally, when we were finished eating, he said to me, "Aeris, I've got a mission. I'm leaving tonight."

I was stunned. He'd never left on such short notice before. "But why?"

"I dunno. They're sending Sephiroth too, so I guess it's a big deal. I'm sorry."

I tried to smile, but I know it didn't work. "It's not your fault. You have to go where they send you. I'm just surprised. That's all."

It wasn't all though. I was having the feeling that he wasn't ever coming back. It was a feeling that hadn't ever been wrong before. "Where are they sending you?"

"Aeris, you know I can't tell you that."

"I know. Its just that…" I didn't know how to put my fear into words.

"Hey," he took my hand across the table. "It's just for a few days. A week at the most. And then I'll be back. Maybe you can introduce me to your mom then."

"Okay." I knew I wouldn't be introducing him to my Mom. Ever.

He got up then, and walked around the table to me. Wrapped me up in his arms and held me. "I'm not gonna die, honey. Everything will be fine."

He didn't know what I knew. This was the last day I would have to spend with the man I loved.

The hardest part was meeting Cloud later, that day in the church when Reno of the Turks came for me. I'd managed to move on finally—five years later. I'd stopped hearing his voice in crowded rooms or seeing his face as I turned street corners.

I'd stopped hoping that I'd been wrong and that he was coming home.

It was the foolish, childish hope that a seventeen year old girl could come up with, despite all proof to the contrary. The great Sephiroth had been killed on that mission. Shinra wasn't quiet about that, though they never mentioned what happened to the rest of the team they'd sent there.

But if Sephiroth was dead, no one else had survived either.

Cloud took all my closed wounds and opened them wide again. He was exactly like Zack in nearly every way. His voice was even similar—not the same, just close.

And then, I just had to stay with him to find out why.

The night he stayed with my Mom and me, I nearly died when I heard him singing Zack's favorite song in the shower. I cried for a while—outside, in the garden so that Mom wouldn't hear and get worried. Cloud never knew. Cloud never knew a lot of things, because I was too scared to tell him—or any of the others.

By the time we stayed at the Gold Saucer, I'd fallen hopelessly in love with him. Well, not him precisely. I'd fallen in love with the copy of Zack that he presented for me.

But by then I'd gotten that feeling again. The one that told me someone wasn't making it home from this mission.

This time, it was me.


	3. Sephiroth

Sephiroth's Interlude  
Origonally Published 6.8.2005_

* * *

ORIGONAL AUTHOR'S NOTE: _

_i know, i know. another ficlet before i get another chapter of sunrise sherbet or free as a bird out. i'm sorry. progress is being made on both stories tho, and i should have another chapter of free as a bird up tonight. also, i've put my "stories" series on hold for a bit. massive writer's block has decreed that i not work on them for a while. i'm looking for my chainsaw to fix the problem, but it seems to have gone missing._

_oh, and if anyone knows where i can get accurate game scripts for the FF games, let me know. i can use them in a big way!_

_eerian_

* * *

It was easier when the madness was only Jenova's. Before I knew that my own mind was spiraling down out of control.

Knowing that I had no more control over myself was the hardest part of the insanity.

It was Jenova's idea to kill Aeris Gainsborough, but the madness inside me decided to go through with it. The part of me who railed at the madness, the lack of control, knew she was no true threat to Jenova's plans even if her prayer for Holy was heard. Jenova's power, as channeled through my body was more than enough to hold Holy at bay indefinitely.

No, the true threat was Cloud Strife, who'd been bound with mako and Jenova the way I was. And who'd somehow acquired all of the SOLDIER Zack's memories during Hojo's warped experimenting. The boy was powerful and determined—two things that only got stronger after the Cetra's death and his swim in the Lifestream.

I wish, now, that I had taken Zack's advice and gotten to know him better during our missions together.

The madness began in my earliest infancy, I think. For truly, I never had the kind of childhood others did—and not just because my father was a negligent mad scientist. I was always too strong, too fast, too coordinated. Too much better than everyone else at everything. When I was young, other children stayed away from me in fear. When I was older my peers stayed away because of envy and fear.

Only Zack and Cloud never feared me. Zack because it just wasn't in his nature, and Cloud because he was too in awe of me to be afraid.

But they feared me when I burned Nibelheim. Though Cloud used his rage to suppress his fear and managed to run me through. Something that truly astounded me. It would be a long time before I understood the determination that had allowed him to do that.

I wish I had died in the reactor the day Cloud and I faced off. Instead, my mind became divided in two—half of me eager and willing to do "mother" Jenova's bidding, the other enraged at my violation and wanting nothing more than to be rid of her.

The madness only got worse as time passed. My other self became harder to suppress and what little control I possessed slipped free. Five years had passed when this happened and Jenova decided that her time to attack was at hand.

She took my two halves and made in reality what had before existed only in my mind—she gave the other a body. A copy of my body in fact. He became her willing tool for tormenting Cloud and his companions—and for killing the last of the Cetra and claiming her vengeance for wrongs two thousand years old.

I decided that I would be in my best interest to exert whatever control I could over my clone and use him to bait Cloud into destroying us. I refused to live under Jenova's sway any longer—and I would be damned if I let her destroy me in some quest for revenge that could never be had.

Neither of us had counted on my mad copy's own ambitions, however. He was bent on destruction—as he'd proved in Nibelheim, if either of us had been paying attention. What he couldn't have, no one else would either.

And so, the three of us became enmeshed in a titanic power struggle. One that I was fast losing.

It was my madness, the part of me that I could no longer control, that won. He took my body and, using Jenova's powers, changed it into something that he hopes to crush Cloud and his band with. I know it won't work.

And now, we wait. I've stopped fighting my madness, for I could not live with what he's done in my name if I should manage to win the power struggle.

No, it is better for Cloud to kill me. Far, far better than this madness that Jenova has infected me with.


	4. Elena of the Turks

Elena's Interlude  
Origonally Published 6.18.5005

_

* * *

ORIGONAL AUTHOR'S NOTE: _

_hey again all! here's another interlude for you! and to ezri-candy: Tseng's is in the works and i haven't had a grand idea for a reeve one yet. but i'm sure its coming. i've felt someting tickling the back of my mind since you suggested it._

_enjoy all! TTYL  
eerian_

_DISCLAIMER: don't own ff7 or its characters or any other trademarked/copywritten stuff therein._

* * *

A girl asked me once what it was like to be a Turk. I couldn't really give her a straight answer. It's a terrible job. I'd hate to be the reason anyone else became one. I hate what I do—and I hate that I'm so good at it.

I told the girl it wasn't a job for just anybody.

And it isn't. In a big way it isn't.

The recruitment line makes it sound great. "Shinra, Inc specialized security force" they told me then. I thought it would just be something like body guarding the execs and stuff.

I didn't count on us being assassins, secret police, hunting dogs and worse. Really, I don't think any of us did. All I wanted was a job with some respect, a decent paycheck and some benefits.

But people don't respect me. They fear me. Some people would say that it was the same thing, buts its not. Tseng told me once that the difference didn't matter enough to worry about.

I might have believed him, if it hadn't been so obvious that the difference bothered him a lot too. I think he got suckered into a job that didn't match its description too.

I know Rude and Reno take pride in being a Turk, but I don't. We all take pride in our abilities and we all take pride in always getting the job done, whatever it may be. But I just can't take pride in being a Turk.

It's pretty hard to take pride in a job where they ask you to kill someone once a week.

The guys do their best to keep my mind off of it—especially Tseng. I think that's why I like him so much. Underneath all that professionalism and stoic demeanor, he's really a very nice guy.

Sometimes I think I'm in love with him, but I can't allow myself to really feel it. Being a Turk means no real emotional attachments. Because those attachments can get you killed. Or them, and then you're worse off.

Tseng's wife taught us all that.

No, being a Turk isn't a job for just anyone. It's a job for no one.


	5. Rude of the Turks

Rude's Interlude  
Origonally Published 6.27.2005

_

* * *

ORIGONAL AUTHOR'S NOTE: _

_AN: first off, this one's dedicated to my loyal reader/reviewer ezri-candy. she's the greatest person ever. all of you, GO READ HER STUFF RIGHT NOW!_

_second: to all of my readers of sunrise sherbet: i swear to you, i have not forgotten this fic! the current chapter is just being a pain in my ass. i am making progress tho, and hope to have it up by the end of next week. crosses fingers_

_third: the disclaimer. i don't own any of the characters, or places in final fantasy seven. they are the exclusive property of square-enix. cries_

* * *

Rude's Interlude

It's not easy to be the quiet one. Means that people ignore you or worse: think you're stupid. Some other people will think that it means that you don't see or hear anything. Or know anything.

The truth is, the quiet ones are the ones who see and know the most. We're not busy blocking our eyes and ears with random babbling.

We're also the most dangerous. We're not as easy to read in any circumstances—we tend to get poker faces down to an art. We know the most and we learn the best.

President Shinra once said that I was the most dangerous Turk he'd ever met. And with the Turk's mortality rate, he'd met a lot of them. I'm not sure how much that counts for though, since he managed to get skewered by Sephiroth while we were all off duty.

I think the only person I know who doesn't have a healthy respect for how dangerous I am is Reno. Because for all his brashness, laziness and seeming not to give a shit, he's just as dangerous.

Sure, he wears his emotions like a pair of old blue jeans—faded and getting worn around the edges, but comfortable and natural. And he talks _all the time._ It helps hide the fact that he's analyzing you from the inside out. Or that he's just a hair's trigger from shooting you in the head.

Or that in the inside he's scared to death of everything that's going on now.

And he is. I see it in the way he checks every corner of every room we walk into. The way he sniffs every drink for poison now. The way he's always searching the shadows for someone we hope never to find. And he's not sleeping well either. The dark circles under his eyes betray him in the morning when we haven't been sharing a room at the local inn. When we are, I hear him tossing and turning all night.

Elena talks about being afraid of Sephiroth, but I think that Reno's the most afraid. He's not stupid like the self-centered assholes who order us around. He knows we can't take him. And so do I. And so does Tseng.

It's why we're not really trying very hard to find him. Better to let AVALANCHE track him down. Better to let all of them die trying to stop the unstoppable.

I'll miss the Ancient. After all she's known the Turks forever. And she was the only one who understood why I was quiet. But she won't come back. None of them will.

Because Sephiroth is the most dangerous quiet one the world has ever spawned.

He's got even me scared.


	6. Reeve Tuesti

Reeve's Interlude  
Origonally Published 6.27.2005

_

* * *

ORIGONAL AUTHOR'S NOTE: _

_check it out kids! two ficlets in one day! go me! anyway this one's all ezzy's fault. i wasn't even thinking about Reeve's Interlude yet, and then she went and brought it up. then the idea just wouldn't go away until it was down on paper. its a good thing i have hour long lunches. hope you like it, ez.  
eerian_

_disclaimer. still not mine. never will be. not making money either. sigh_

* * *

I came to Shinra Inc ten years ago—on my twenty-first birthday. They hired me straight out of tech school, since apparently I was a genius with programming and robotics. I also had a pretty good eye for building design and planning. It's so good, in fact, that people are always giving me credit for designing the plate in Midgar, but I didn't. It's been there longer than I've been with Shinra.

No one knows exactly how I moved up so fast, but I became head of Urban Development a little over a year after I started. The rumors all say that I was sleeping with Scarlet, but I wasn't. I can't stand that bitch long enough for a board meeting, let alone sex. And anyone who's met her would know that she'd never do a favor for someone that didn't help her too, whether she was sleeping with them or not.

Being a Shinra division head pretty much kills your social life—not to mention your morals. I didn't take long before all my techie and hacker friends ditched me for people who could actually put time into being a friend or who were better company than me.

Hell, most days, a pissed-off Turk is better company than me.

The prototype for Cait Sith came out of my almost fanatical need to have companionship. I hated most of my co-workers and needed _someone_ to keep me sane. He was just a motorized wire frame with the basic IQ and AI of a normal cat. It worked out really well—especially since I didn't have to remember to feed, water, bathe or litter train him. Over time I streamlined the design into a black and white furred, bipedal cat with the intelligence (I hoped) of a normal human being.

He proved me right when I came home to find him putting the finishing touches on that damn Mog of his. He hadn't put the fur on yet, but otherwise the whole contraption was complete. Down to the fortune telling program.

In one day.

If he'd been human, I'd have taken him out for dinner and drinks in celebration. Instead, we went shopping at the mall on the Plate, where he got that ridiculous outfit with the crown and cape and the rain boots. We also got the fur for the Mog. That day, I wouldn't have denied him anything. He wanted to fur the thing as soon as we got home, so we stayed up all night doing it. I was a wreck at work, but it was worth it.

Cait Sith is my child, I think.

After the Mog, I never knew what I'd come home to find him doing. Once he blackened the kitchen trying to teach himself to cook. And another time, he crashed all of Shinra's computers trying to hack into the network to talk to me. I never let the bosses know about that one.

But the day I came home to his combat training was probably the funniest. He was sparring in the living room with Reno of the Turks when I walked in the front door. I don't know where he got the idea for the training, or how he convinced Reno to go through with it, but it was a damn funny sight.

I think that may be how Rufus Shinra found out about Cait and decided he'd be the perfect spy inside AVALANCHE. I didn't want to send him out, but Rufus said it was him or my job, and I knew I'd never find another job; there aren't any companies except for Shinra anymore.

So, I set him up with satellite linked audio/video camera feeds, and sent him on his way. Most of the time, I wasn't even watching the feeds, even though Rufus had made the spy job my sole responsibility until Sephiroth was stopped. And I only overrode his programming and took control of his actions twice during the entire fiasco: when I stole the keystone and when I sacrificed his body at the Temple of the Ancients. Both times, too much was at stake not to.

Besides, I'd long ago copied the body and Mog, right down to the rain boots and crown. And I constantly had his memory downloading and backing up on the computer at home. A couple of keystrokes and he'd be good as new, memories and all.

After all, no parent wants their child to die.

Yesterday, Cait got the bright idea and use Rufus' tactic against him. He wants me to be AVALANCHE's spy in Shinra, Inc.

Now we've just got to hope that Rufus never finds out.


	7. Vincent Valentine First Movement

Vincent's Interlude  
Origonally Published 7.23.2005

_

* * *

ORIGONAL AUTHOR'S NOTE: _

_ok, kids. i've been suffering a bout of writer's block. its not really gone, but somewhere in there i got this written out. believe it or not, it started out being rufus' interlude, not vincent's, but it took the right at alberque and turned into something completly different. enh. what can ya do?_

_enjoy and review!  
eerian_

* * *

Somewhere close by, water is dripping into a puddle. It wasn't there when I was first put into this place, and I want to be annoyed by it. But I can't manage to find the emotion for it.

I can't find the emotion for much of anything, in fact. Too much is drowned out by the pain.

And the guilt. The terrible, crushing knowledge that I have utterly, completely failed at the only thing I every wanted in my entire existence.

I failed her. And her son. I tried to stop the madman, but I failed miserably.

And all our lives were the price.

Until I met Hojo, I could never have imagined true evil. The Turks are brutally, coldly deadly, and yet we only follow orders. Some of our evil is absolved in that.

But Hojo, who is motivated only by science and his precious JENOVA project, is true evil. Only such a person could experiment on his wife and unborn child merely to see the effect that the JENOVA cells would have on them.

Professor Gast would never have agreed to such madness. But Gast is not here. He left days—weeks?—ago, searching for someone on the northern continent.

And he most certainly would not have let Hojo do what he's done to me. Whatever that is.

I remember very little of what happened after the devil shot me. There was pain—a universe of it. Though not from the gunshot wound. It was a new sort of pain—something I was completely unfamiliar with. It blotted out what came to pass.

I cannot feel my left hand anymore. I know something is there, however. I hear it rasping—a dry metal on metal sound—when I command the fingers of that hand to move. I cannot bring myself to look and find what it is, however. I cannot bring myself to see how evil has deformed me.

I also hear things I should not be able to. The bats in the hallway do not make enough noise to penetrate stone walls and casket lining, and yet I hear them. And I hear Hojo in the library talking to the baby, telling him clinically how he will contribute to evil's research. It makes me wish to be ill. If I hear more, perhaps I will be.

And perhaps I shall try to sleep—to escape my guilt for awhile. Though the drip will doubtlessly keep me awake.


	8. Rufus Shinra

Rufus' Interlude  
Origonally Published 8.05.2005

* * *

_ORIGONAL AUTHOR'S NOTE: all righty ezzy. Here's one of the two you asked for. Still trying to get the kinks worked out of Tseng's interlude, tho. It just keeps coming off wrong. So, in the meantime, here's Rufus' interlude to keep you busy. Its not what I intended exactly, but it worked out well, I think, so I'm keeping it around._

_DISCLAIMER: I don't own Rufus Shinra, Sephiroth, Tseng, the WEAPONs, AVALANCHE, Rocket Town, Scarlet, FF7, or any other unnamed references from said game. All I own is the contents of my bedroom and the ideas contained in my works of fanfiction._

* * *

Each day, the weariness sets in a little further. I can't remember the last time I wasn't exhausted beyond the ability to stand by the end of the day.

When Sephiroth murdered my father, I never dreamed that things were going to get so far out of hand. But they have. Palmer finding the old man's body skewered on that massive katana has been the only good thing that has happened since the general popped back up.

But I thank whatever gods there are that the fat old fool is dead. If he was still in charge around here, he probably would have blown up the entire planet with Scarlet's stupid toys.

This place gets more tiring every day. Especially since Tseng died. He seemed to be the calm in the storm—just being around him was relaxing. But he's gone, and I have to deal with all this shit on my own now. There isn't a calm center to this storm anymore.

Now its just beating me to death. Everything is chaos. First it was AVALANCHE, then Sephiroth. Then the fiasco at Rocket Town. And then Tseng. On problem after another after another. One disaster after another after another.

Now, these WEAPON things are rampaging across the planet and meteor is coming down on us all. The people are screaming for help—like Shinra automatically knows how to stop something we didn't even know existed. There was rioting in the streets today. I had to dispatch the Turks and the First Class SOLDIERS to put it down. When the instigators of the riot were questioned, they blamed the whole thing on me.

Like I'm the soul cause of everything going wrong on this planet.

How could everything have gone so wrong, so quickly? Why has gaining everything I ever wanted done nothing but take my sanity?

Sometimes I wish Sephiroth had killed me too. And sometimes, my handgun starts to look far too friendly.


	9. Zack, SOLDIER 1ST Class

Zack's Interlude  
Origonally Posted 8.31.2005

_

* * *

ORIGONAL AUTHOR'S NOTE: _

_this was an interlude i hadn't planned on writing, surprisingly enough. zack has so little actual coverage in the game that i didn't feel like i had enough material to work with. but, thanks so much to the wal-mart service desk once again! this just sort of popped into my head during one of those down times we have, where everyone has too much time to think._

_so, maybe ezzy's right. if the service desk inspires regular posting, maybe i should work there more._

_eerian_

* * *

Sephiroth was never what you'd call a warm and cuddly person. Hell, most days, he was one pretty cold bastard. But he was my friend, and I loved him like a brother.

The first time we met, he'd just come back from Wutai, though the war wasn't over yet. I'd just graduated into the ranks of First Class—along with two other guys—and he'd gotten roped into coming to the promotion party. Everybody else was pretty obvious in trying to avoid him, but I'm the kind of guy who has to try to make friends with everybody, even ice prince generals. So, I sauntered up and introduced myself to the best general—and strongest SOLDIDER—ShinRa had.

He didn't even threaten to kill me for talking too much like I heard some of the guys betting he would.

I got assigned as his second in command not long after that, even though he didn't currently have a unit to be commanding until he got back overseas. The posting was mostly to guarantee that I would go with him. I think he pulled some strings to get someone who didn't hate him and wasn't afraid of him assigned to that particular post.

Not that I minded. Just working with him was enough. Getting to be his friend, that was something I never expected.

But there it was, one night after a pretty grueling patrol. He just showed up at my tent, wanting to know if we could talk. Mostly, I talked and he listened, but what else can you expect from a guy who's such a loner? After that, just hanging out after patrol—or later, nights at the office—became a ritual for us. Sometimes we'd have drinks or tea, other nights we'd grab dinner at some local pub or restaurant. It depended on where we were, really, but we were always together.

So, of course, the rumors started up that we were sleeping together. Mostly, we just pretended that we didn't hear them, but once we got called into the president's office over it. Relationships, he told us, were forbidden between officers in the same unit—like we didn't know that. Then he threatened to have me removed from my post if we didn't break it off. God forbid something tarnish the reputation of the great General Sephiroth.

After we were dismissed, Seph told me he'd handle everything. I'm not sure what he did—and I don't really want to know—but we never heard another peep about us being together after that.

A lot of time, life with Sephiroth was like that. He got shit _done_, and you just never wanted to know how.

But he was a great guy. Once you got past the wall that had been put up between him and all the normal people in the world, the real him was the best friend you could ever have. He never got to meet my girl, but he was even going to take me and Aeris out for dinner after we got back from Nibelheim.

Guess that's never gonna happen now.

I wish I knew how to help him. He's so lost in those books though. So obsessed with finding out the 'truth.'

I wish it had occurred to him that, for once, _he'd_ be better off not knowing what had happened.

And I wish I had my friend back.


	10. Tseng of the Turks

Tseng's Interlude  
Origonally Published 11.28.2005

author's notes at the end.

DISCLAIMER: i dont own tseng, sephiroth, aeris, cloud, reeve or cait sith. or rude, reno, elena or the temple of the ancients.

* * *

I expected it to hurt.

When Sephiroth entered the Temple after I'd sent Elena away, I knew I was going to die, but I didn't expect the swift painlessness he gave me. I had expected him to play with me a bit, like a cat who's caught a very small mouse, but he didn't.

I got off two shots before he was on me. I got off a third as his sword sliced through my stomach and into my spine. After that, my gun slid from my nerveless fingers as my body went into shock. He threw me against the wall like a piece of refuse as he removed his sword from my body, and there I stayed.

Unable to move my legs because he'd severed my spine. Unable to move my hands because of the shock. Unable to call Elena back because I couldn't force my brain to work well enough to come up with that idea.

I had always thought my death would be more brutal—more appropriate for a glorified corporate assassin. Something more like the SOLDIER Zack got outside Midgar. I had always expected it to be painful.

I'm oddly grateful that Sephiroth gave me that small mercy. That my death didn't hurt.

I also expected it to be lonely. I've always believed that I would die alone.

But, with that sense of impeccable timing they have, Cloud and Aeris have also arrived at the Temple of the Ancients. And that stupid robot of Reeve's.

I told them he was here, I think. That it was Sephiroth that did this to me. But I can't remember.

But I'm comforted by her hand in mine, her green eyes showing nothing but love for me, even after all I've put her through. So sweet…

I can't find the breath now to tell her. It's slipping away, and I can almost feel it.

Too bad that I never got to have that dinner with Elena. That I never got to tell her what I thought of her. That I never managed to get Reno to straighten up. That Rude and I never had that drink we always said we would.

But at least…there's no…pain…

* * *

_ORIGONAL AUTHOR'S NOTE: _

_finally came up with this one. after months of scrapped starts and half finishes that i hated. i was trying the wrong angle of approch apparantly. trying to make him talk instead of waiting patiently for Tseng to say something to me like everyone else has. and please don't be angry at the subject matter--i don't decide when or where the interlude will happen; it just does._

_and i cried as i wrote this. and yes, kids, i know about advent children before any of you review and say, "but in advent children, censored for people not wanting spoilers"_

_eerian_

* * *


	11. Cloud Strife

Cloud's Interlude  
Origonally Published 12.19.2005

A/N Edit: when i origonally published this piece, i got flamed hard core for it. i was, in fact, told that it was crap. at the time i was pretty hurt and angry, but looking at all the other positive feedback i've gotten on it, i think its funny. especially since my publisher requested another piece from me the other day..._

* * *

ORIGONAL AUTHOR'S NOTE: _

_well, in standard tradition, yet another interlude has managed to write itself as i was looking at something on deviant art today. (if you dont' spend any time there, you should. there's lots of fun and NICE art up there. they also like the writing. :-) i have some deviant exclusive stuff up there too.) anyway. i'm not sure where this came from, and i'm sure some of you will think its lots of OOC, but i really think that cloud spent a portion of the game feeling this way. you know--alone and really scared of what he didn't know or understand._

_anyway, enjoy all! and leave comments please! ;-)  
eerian_

* * *

Sometimes, I wonder what the others would say if I told them I was afraid.

I think I know how they would react, physically, but what would they say? Would they tell me I was a fool? That there wasn't anything to be afraid of? Or would they laugh, thinking I was just joking around with them?

Aeris would have understood, but she's gone now. And the others, they're just so hard to talk to. It feels too much like they're judging me, or just expecting me to be the perfect man.

But I'm not. The perfect man wouldn't be afraid.

But I am afraid. Sometimes, I'm so frightened that I think it just might kill me.

I have nightmares. Of what happened in Nibelheim. Of what happened to Aeris. Of what we're doing now.

I'm so afraid we're going to screw it up.

I'm not the hero everyone thinks I am. I didn't save Tifa when she was in trouble. I didn't really stop Sephiroth in Nibelheim. I couldn't even manage to save myself from Hojo's lab in the mansion.

But most of all, I'm afraid of what Sephiroth said to me that day. Afraid that I am really what he says I am.

A puppet. Something for Jenova to play with as she chooses. Something for him to play with as he chooses.

The others would try to understand, I think. But they'd never be able to comfort my fear. And they'd never understand it.

They'd never understand how afraid of myself I am.


	12. Vincent Valentine Second Movement

Vincent's Interlude, Second Movement  
Origonally Published 1.22.2006

_AUTHOR'S NOTE, EDIT: this particular piece was origonally published only on but when they changed their submission policies, i got pretty ticked off about it. after they clairified the policy and pointed out that it didn't really do what some of us thought it did, i started posting there agian, but never moved this one back._

_i don't like it as much as the first movement, but that happens.

* * *

_

ORIGONAL AUTHOR'S NOTE: 

_this movement was origonally going to be exclusive to but they've changed their policies and are basically allowing people free lisence to steal another's work without any sort of consent from the owner. i think that's crap and took down all my deviantart works. so i've moved this one over here for everyone to enjoy._

_eerian_

* * *

The nightmares always come. Some nights, there are fewer than others. But there is always at least one.

And that one always involves the baby.

Sephiroth, Lucrecia's son.

Sephiroth, my son.

She never admitted it, but we both knew it was true. She'd slept with me one lonely night at the mansion while Hojo was in Midgar. Even though they'd been married for some weeks, she was still a virgin.

There was never a doubt that the baby was mine.

That's why I fought her so hard those first months when Hojo wanted to do the experiments on them. He wasn't so stupid that he didn't see the truth too.

Some nights, the nightmares convince me that what they did to Sephiroth was to punish me. Other nights, they convince me that what I had with Lucy could have been real if not for that mad scientist standing between us.

But most nights, the nightmares are of Sephiroth coming back into my dungeon in the mansion to kill me.

Lately, as I've traveled with AVALANCHE the nightmares have changed.

Now, when Sephiroth comes to the mansion to have his revenge, I slay him instead, only to have him turn into his mother.

The nightmares never let me escape the fact that I let her die, and yet I sleep anyway. Perhaps, I hope that one day I'll wake to find that I've dreamed of her forgiveness.


	13. Cait Sith

Cait Sith's Interlude  
Origonally Published 3.22.2006_

* * *

_

ORIGONAL AUTHOR'S NOTE: 

_i'm sure that some people are going to think i'm high for writing this. especially as **nothing** ingame or in Advent Children alludes to any of this. don't care; it was kicking around in my head so i had to put it down. you all understand._

**_Disclaimer: i don't own final fantasy 7 or its characters. those are the property of square-enix, who get all the profit from them. _**

* * *

It was raining the morning Aeris died. A bad omen if I've ever seen one—and I've seen a lot of those.

But we had to go on; Sephiroth didn't leave us any choice.

He was chasing Aeris, we all knew that. And we all knew what he'd do to her if he caught her. So did she, but she'd gone anyway. I guess she thought we'd have slowed her down or something.

And my damn moogle did slow us down when we needed to be fast the most. If one of the others had just unbent enough to carry me so that we could have made better time, I would have left the thing in an instant.

After all, it was just as replaceable as me.

Don't get me wrong—I know I'm not immortal. But I know that I'm a computer program in a furry body, and I'd have stayed behind in Gongaga or worse if it had meant catching her in time.

Aeris was the only one who was willing to trust me after the Keystone thing for a long time. And she even acted like she liked me—though she liked Vincent too, so maybe that's not so much after all. She was the only one who understood that Reeve made me take the keystone—and he only did that because Rufus was going to have Marlene and Elmyra killed.

I talked to Tifa about it all not long ago, and she told me that nothing would have stopped Aeris from dying. That it wasn't my fault. I guess she believes that.

I wish that I did.


End file.
